The Samsung Innov8 passes through the FCC.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)Though it's been slow in cell phone land over the holidays, the Federal Communications Commission has been hard at work clearing new handsets. One of the most notable additions over the last two weeks is a version of the 8-megapixel Samsung Innov8 camera phone with support for North American 3G networks. Because the FCC has to certify every phone sold in the United States, not to mention test its SAR rating, the agency's online database offers a lot of sneak peeks to those who dig. And to save you the trouble, Crave has combed through the database for you. Here are a selection of filings from the past week on new and upcoming cell phones. Click through to read the full report.
Alcatel OT-V570A
HTC DIAM400
Kyocera M2000
Kyocera S1300
LG GB125a
LG KB775
LG KT770
LG VX9600
Nokia (RM-4134)
RIM BlackBerry RBK41CG
Samsung Innov8 (North American version)
Samsung SCH-W720
Samsung SCH-W750
Samsung SGH-A657
Samsung SGH-S366
Sharp 830SHe
Sharp SH6010C
ZTE E810
The music-friendly Samsung Highnote in all its glory.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)This week we reviewed two Samsung handsets that span the full range of mobile multimedia. The Highnote is a new music phone for Sprint and the Innov8 is a fancy 8-megapixel camera. In North America, it is available as an unlocked model.
Samsung and Sprint introduced the Highnote at the CTIA Fall 2008 show last month. Also called the SPH-M630, the Highnote is a music phone that replaces the Samsung Upstage and the LG Muziq. It offers all the usual highlights of a Sprint music phone, with an eye-catching slider design and a new menu interface. Call and music performance were satisfying, but the streaming video was patchy at times.
Read the full Samsung Highnote review.
It's not often that we get our hands on a high-performance camera phone. While plenty of high-resolution shooters land in the laps of our lucky colleagues at CNET Asia, we've had to settle for unlocked 5-megapixel models like the Sony Ericsson K850i and the Samsung SGH-G800.
Take your best shot with the Samsung Innov8.
(Credit: Samsung)And don't get us started on U.S. wireless carriers; they can't bring themselves to offer anything more power than 3.2-megapixel models, like the LG Dare.
So count us surprised and excited when Samsung graciously decided to send us a review model of its new 8-megapixel camera phone, the Samsung Innov8. Sleek, powerful, and armed with an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink feature set, the Innov8 makes even the high-quality LG Dare look like two tin cans connected by a string.
Photo quality is excellent, as we expected, and the editing features rival those on a standalone camera. You still won't find an optical zoom--you'll have to head to Korea to find a camera phone with one of those--and the flash is disappointing, but the Innov8 offers just about everything else. Yet, as powerful as it is, the Innov8's photo quality is only marginally better than those 5-megapixel handsets.
The Innov8 struts its stuff.
(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)Samsung held a holiday showcase Wednesday at a San Francisco studio. Typically, these things are reserved for our lucky New York City colleagues, so we were very happy to see Samsung grace us with such an event. The holiday decorations were also welcome, considering they matched the frigid San Francisco summer weather outside.
For the most part the cell phone news was nil, but we did spy a couple of previously announced handsets that we had yet to see in the flesh. One was the Samsung Innov8, aka the SGH-i8510, which the company announced almost two weeks ago. The loaded camera phone offers an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink feature set in an attractive slider design that's reminiscent of the Nokia N96. The black styling is attractive, and even with all its features it manages to stay relatively slim at 4.19-inches tall by 2.12-inches wide by 0.68-inch deep. It also has a solid, comfortable feeling in the hand and the slider mechanism appears to be sturdy.
The Innov8 shows its camera side.
(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)The Innov8's controls are spacious and well designed. A square toggle and central OK button are flanked by shortcut keys, shortcut controls, and the Talk and End/Power buttons. We thumbed through the menus for a few moments and didn't see any potential issues. What's more, the user interface with the pop-up menus was intuitive and straightforward. We took great interest in the Innov8's promised "optical mouse." We didn't know quite what to expect from it, but the concept is simple in reality; on the screen is a small cursor that you control by sliding your finger over the square OK control. The effect was so subtle that we didn't notice it right away. And though there's no actual "mouse" present, the concept is similar.
From the left side you can see the Innov8's 3.5mm headeet jack.
(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)Like many high-resolution camera phones, the Innov8 is designed to resemble a standalone camera. And, on that front, is succeeds. On the back you'll find a prominent lens with a sliding cover, plus a large flash. When holding the phone horizontally, the Innov8 takes on the ergonomics of a real shooter.
We didn't get the chance to thumb through all the features, but the promised offerings are impressive. Beyond the 8-megapixel shooter, which looks impressive in its own right, the Innov8 offers an FM radio, Wi-Fi, an accelerometer, a 3.5mm headset jack, stereo Bluetooth, 16GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, a music player, and A-GPS. And of course, it makes calls, too.
Samsung isn't planning to bring the Innov8 to the United States just yet, but it should end up here as an unlocked, and undeniably expensive, model.
The Samsung Innov8 promises a full set of camera features to keep shutterbugs happy.
(Credit: CNET Asia)With a 10-megapixel cell phone in its handset lineup, Samsung is no stranger to high-end camera phones. But as if to prove that it really means business, today the company announced a new 8-megapixel shooter.
Called the Innov8 (the what?), it promises a full set of camera features to keep shutterbugs happy. Inside you'll find an auto-panorama mode; a bright flash; smile, blink, and face detection; wide dynamic range capturing abilities; and a video recorder that captures clips at 30 frames per second.
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A phone or a camera?
(Credit: CNET Asia)Beyond snapping shots, it also has an FM radio, Wi-Fi, a large display with an accelerometer, and an optical mouse (we're not sure how the latter works). It has a 3.5mm headset jack, stereo Bluetooth, 16GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, a music player, and A-GPS. And of course, it makes calls as well.
Also called the i8510, the Samsung Innov8 is a quadband GSM handset that supports the 1900 and 2100 HSDPA bands. It should launch in the European market by next month with other regions following in September. Pricing details are not yet available. With this new handset Samsung seems to be going after both the Sony Ericsson C905 and the Motorola ZN5. But for a deeper analysis of the Innov8, head over to our colleagues in Singapore at CNET Asia.
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